Chung Hyeon celebrates winning against Tennys Sandgren in their men's singles quarter-final match of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Wednesday. / Reuters-Yonhap

First Korean to reach Grand Slam semifinals

By Baek Byung-yeul

Chung Hyeon continued his historic march in the Australian Open, Wednesday, by advancing to the singles semifinals as the first Korean tennis player to reach a Grand Slam last four.

At the Rod Laver Arena, the world No. 58 defeated No. 97 Tennys Sandgren of the United States 3-0 (6-4, 7-6 [7-5], 6-3) in his second career win over the 26-year-old American.

The 21-year-old had a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Sandgren in the first round of the ASB Classic in Auckland earlier this month.

Dubbed "Professor," the bespectacled Korean shocked the world Monday by upsetting Novak Djokovic in the round of 16. The win made Chung the first Korean tennis player to reach the quarterfinals at any Grand Slam tournament, but now he has taken his record a step further.

Against Sandgren, Chung looked more comfortable than his Monday night appearance as he won his first set in less than 40 minutes.

At 1-1, he drew first blood as he broke Sandgren's service to make it 2-1. Chung kept hitting deep returns, forcing his opponent to run all over the court to take the set 6-4.

He then won a seesaw battle with Sandgren in the second set. Though he got off to a good start with a 2-0 lead, Sandgren fought back, taking three straight games.

The two fought to 5-5 before Sandgren went ahead 6-5 with three forehand winners. But Chung held for 6-6 on his serve. In the tie-break, the two exchanged mini-breaks for 5-5, but with his fearsome forehands Chung closed it out 7-5.

The Korean again got off to a good start in the third set, making it to 4-1. At 5-3, Chung raced out to 40-0; but two unforced errors made it 40-30 and the game went to deuce as Sandgren hit a forehand winner past him.

Sandgren had a breakpoint after Chung made another error but the latter fought back to deuce with his strong serve. At break point, the two engaged in a 31-shot long rally, before Sandgren hit the net to bring it to back to deuce.

At match point, Sandgren fended off two close shots at the net, but Chung finally converted his sixth opportunity to advance to the semifinals.

"At 40-0, I was thinking about what to say in (the) ceremony," he said in a post-match interview on the court.

When asked about whether he would prefer Federer or Berdych in the next round, Chung said he doesn't really care.

"I don't know," he said. "It's 50-50 ... I don't care."

Chung also spoke in Korean to fans here. "My competition isn't over, so please keep supporting me," he said. "I'll see you guys on Friday."

Chung has emerged as a rising tennis star after claiming the Next Generation ATP Finals in Milan last November.

At the season-ending event for players 21 or younger, Chung beat Andrey Rublev of Russia to get his first and only ATP title.

The Korean tennis sensation is regarded as a successor to Lee Hyung-taik, who held the country's highest ATP rank of 36 in 2007.

After advancing to the semifinals, Chung is expected to be Korea's first-ever player to enter the top 30 in the ATP men's singles rankings. Chung, who recorded his highest rank of 44 in September 2017, currently sits at 58th with 857 points. But after the tournament, he will have at least 1,577 points as he has already secured 720 from his quarterfinals win. The 1,577 points would place him at 28th.

Chung has also become the first Asian player to reach the Australian Open semifinals in 86 years following Japan's Jiro Sato's 1932 run.